Our Sweater KAL/CAL is continuing until January 15, 2015, so get busy!  Please check out the chatter thread for all the information you need to participate, and post your finished sweaters in our FOs thread for a chance to win one of our prize packages!

The Northern California Knitting Retreat (NoCKRs!) will be held April 17 - 19, 2015 in San Juan Bautista, CA.  If you are interested in attending, please go here for all the information. $265 per person.  

Tracie has finished: 

Mother Bear #50 - crocheted

Propeller by Woolly Wormhead for her niece Lauren

Her second Vitamin D by Heidi Kirrmaier

Tracie has cast on:

Ethan The Aviator by Gabrielle Danskknit in Cascade Bentley for little cousin Isaac

Shalom Cardigan by Meghan McFarlane in Araucania Tepa in the 1788 colorway, a beautiful sky blue/green variegated

She continues to work on:

Canyonlands Shawl by verybusymonkey using Blue Heron Rayon Metallic in the Deep Blue Sea colorway

Cleito sleeveless top by Susan Mills, using Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton DK in yellow, and Mirasol Yarn Illaris in 111 (plum)

And has been giving no love to:

Mystik Spiral Socks by Josh Ryks, using Invictus Yarns Master of My Feet in the Aradia Self-striping colorway.

Far East of Eden bag by Myra Wood, using way too many yarns to list!

Barb has finished:

Mini-Landing Cardi by Vera Sanon, using Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in the Summer Blooms colorway for her granddaughter Jayla, who is turning 6!

Upstairs/Downstairs: A Cowl in Three Sizes by Paula Emons-Fuseli, using Dizzy Blonde Studios Dirty Blonde DK in the Nichole colorway.

Mystik Spiral Socks by Josh Ryks, using Desert Vista Dyeworks Viso in the Dia de los Muertos colorway.  She has Halloween socks in time for Halloween!

She has been working on:

Brooke's Column of Leaves scarf by Brooke Nelson, using Cascade Yarns 220 Worsted in the Mystic Purple color way.

Barb is continuing to knit:

The Hitofude cardigan by Hiroku Fakatsu, using Madelinietosh Tosh Merino Light in the Jasper colorway.

Bootstrap Socks from Sock Architecture by Lara Neel, using GnomeAcres House Gnome in the Betelguese colorway.

Tracie does not recommend A Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli, and thought The Shining by Stephen King what good in spite of an ending she did not find scary.

She is reading:

The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are by Kevin Leman, 

Bitch In a Bonnet: Reclaiming Jane Austen From the Stiffs, the Snobs, the Simps and the Saps, Volume 2 by Robert Rodi (she loved Volume 1), 

and 600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster, a novel about a Montana man who has severe OCD and Asperger’s Syndrome that she is finding delightful.

Barb finished and highly recommends both The Farm by Tom Rob Smith and Stoner by John Edward Williams

She is currently reading a trio of chillers: 

Don’t Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

He’s Gone by Deb Caletti

and Night Film by Marisha Pessl, which she is reading in book-book form because of the cool, creepy visuals included.

Barb gives King of Siam Restaurant in Tehachapi, CA a thumbs-up, and Tracie seconds!  The Chicks have enjoyed Thai food  at King of Siam every year that they have attended the Cogknitive Fiber Retreat!

EBOLA: A CASE IN INEQUALITY 

“As the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa shows, the importance of reducing inequality could not be more clear. The battle against the virus is a fight on many fronts -- human lives and health foremost among them. But the fight against Ebola is also a fight against inequality. The knowledge and infrastructure to treat the sick and contain the virus exists in high- and middle-income countries. However, over many years, we have failed to make these things accessible to low-income people in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. So now thousands of people in these countries are dying because, in the lottery of birth, they were born in the wrong place.”